NETL has updated its previous life cycle analysis (LCA) focused on the U.S. natural gas supply chain, specifically studying the production, gathering and boosting, processing, transmission and storage, and distribution of natural gas to domestic consumers. The new research expands the LCA to include more measurement-based data and incorporates important modeling changes including regionalization of processing, transmission, and distribution stages, which aim to improve the understanding of life cycle impacts associated with natural gas and help inform effective mitigation and business strategies towards a sustainable future.

LCA reports and tools allow decision-makers to evaluate the consequences of policy, guide research and identify opportunities for improvement. LCA includes the environmental burdens of converting fuel to useful energy, infrastructure construction, extraction and transportation of fuel and transport of the final energy product to the end user. Environmental burdens comprise emissions to air and water, water use and land use.

The previous research, published in the report “Life Cycle Analysis of Natural Gas Extraction and Power Generation,” sought to represent the 2016 U.S. natural gas supply chain from a life cycle perspective. This report represents 2020 U.S. natural gas supply using data from the EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program and Greenhouse Gas Inventory, publicly available measurement-based studies of natural gas infrastructure, EnverusTM (formerly DrillingInfoTM), and the Energy Information Administration.

“Along with providing an analysis with updated data, we are also improving transparency by providing spreadsheets containing the background details for all exhibits in the report, model results data for all scenarios examined, and some additional explanation for portions of the analysis,” said NETL’s Harshvardhan Khutal, lead author of the report, “And as with the last version of the report, we released the Microsoft® Excel-based life cycle model.”

“This report continues the Lab’s important and relied-upon LCA research, specifically related to natural gas,” Khutal said. “Natural gas is still widely used in residential, commercial, industrial and transportation applications, and because its primary component is methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, it is critical to fully understand the impact of emissions from extraction through power generation. The information and analysis in this updated report can be used as a powerful baseline tool for exploring meaningful decarbonization opportunities.”

Access the updated report, with new appendix, here.

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers technological solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By leveraging its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.